Permeation of binary gas mixtures in ultramicroporous membranes.

High-quality nanometer thick ultramicroporous membranes were prepared from silica sol-gel processes and tested for the permeation of binary gas mixtures of He, H2, CO2, and CH4 across different temperature and partial pressure regimens. Pore size distribution by molecular probing showed that the majority of pore sizes had dimensions below 2.9 A. In 50:50 binary mixtures, the fluxes of gases increased as a function of temperature, indicating an activated transport mechanism. The ultramicroporous membranes showed high selectivities at 150 degrees C for He/CO2 (30), He/CH4 (93), H2/CO2 (10), and H2/CH4 (9) with lower selectivities for CO2/CH4 (5). High activation energies (Ea) were observed for the permeance of 50:50 binary mixtures containing He and H2 of 22.1-27.5 and 17.6-23.1 kJ.mol-1, respectively. The Ea for the permeance of the total mixture approached the Ea for the permeance of the molecule with the smaller kinetic diameter (He or H2).